When Shelley Czeizler walked out her front door recently to get petitions for Michigan wolves signed, she didn't know she'd be in a cast two weeks later.

Her plan was to go to Oakland University's campus to collect signatures for Keep Michigan Wolves Protected, a group advocating for the animal's well-being.

Two steps out her door sent her to the ground -- pain shot through her body, she said.

An ambulance was called to her Clarkston home. She later learned she had broken her left ankle in several different places.

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On her way to Royal Oak Beaumont, Czeizler was able to get a signature from a paramedic who rode along with her.

"She seemed very dedicated to the cause," said Ross Green, the paramedic who tended to Czeizler. "She was very talkative ... a conversation about her cause was a sidebar that came up."

Czeizler, a retired UAW electronic communications worker, said while she is feeling sorry for herself for the time being, her pain is only short term and will go away. She was happy to have the captive audience on her way to the hospital.

Green, her audience of one after the March 10 accident, said it would've been the same way if they were in same line at the grocery store.

"It's just one of those things," he said. "We like to make our residents feel good about the EMS process ... it wasn't a big deal."

Subsequently, Czeizler ended up requiring surgery on her ankle, due to the number of breaks in the bone.

"They had to put a plate and a couple screws in," she said. After she was fitted with a cast, and confined to a wheelchair while she recovered, she received a visiting nurse from Beaumont.

"I got her to sign, too," she said. "If I could get out of this house, I'd be at Oakland University right now."

Czeizler is a volunteer in a continued effort to overturn a bill Gov. Rick Snyder signed designating wolves as game animals, led by Lansing-based advocacy group Keep Michigan Wolves Protected.

According to KMWP media relations coordinator Jim Karshner, efforts to get the petition the 225,000 signatures it needs to be considered by legislature will most likely succeed.

"By our last estimate, we should hit our goal," said Karshner. "Volunteers will be spending the weekend sorting and counting, and Wednesday we're going to be taking 25 to 30 boxes to the Secretary of State's Office."

From there, he said, the Board of State Canvassers has 60 days to make sure the petition signatures are legitimate -- they could get an extra 15 days by law, as well -- and decide whether the KMWP petition will be included on the November 2014 ballot.

Karshner said Czeizler recently submitted 140 signatures that will be added to that total.

Czeizler said she volunteers because she's against the "big bad wolf" persona that has been cast on the creatures in commercials and folk tales.

"I get sad when I think about the fact that they are getting trapped and killed," she said. "My pain is only temporary ... I need to stop feeling sorry for myself."

The Natural Resources Commission could make a decision on whether to hunt Michigan's gray wolves in June. There are about 700 wolves in the Upper Peninsula, according to Michigan's Department of Natural Resources. For more information on Michigan's wolves, visit michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10370_12145_12205-32569--,00.html.